Moral Compensation and the Environment: Affecting Individuals’ Moral Intentions Through How They See Themselves As Moral

Jennifer Jordan, University of Groningen, The NetherlandsFrancesca Gino, Harvard Business School, USAAnn Tenbrunsel, University of Notre Dame, USAMarijke Leliveld, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Across two studies, we find that having people engage in extreme, but not moderate, moral recalls leads to compensatory environment-related moral behavior. We propose that this effect is due to the ability of extreme moral behavior to alter individuals’ moral self-images and hence their desires to alter these states via moral behavior.